Conventionally, a semiconductor inspecting device that inspects a semiconductor wafer generally uses a contact-type method in which an inspection is performed by having a probe pin contact a pad on the semiconductor wafer, however, in recent years, a non-contact-type method in which an inspection is performed by means of wireless communication or capacitive coupling with the subject chips in the semiconductor wafer without contacting them has been used since the semiconductor wafer may get damaged or it is difficult to adjust the contact pressure in the contact-type method.
For instance, Patent Document 1 discloses a non-contact signal transmission method using wireless communication that performs inspection by using semiconductor chips (the subject chips) having communication coils formed therein in the semiconductor wafer, wirelessly transmitting an inspection signal from the head of the semiconductor inspecting device to the communication coils, and transmitting the inspection results from the communication coils to the head after the functions of the semiconductor chips that received the inspection signal have been inspected. In this method, each semiconductor chip in the semiconductor wafer is inspected by moving the head or the semiconductor wafer.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a non-contact signal transmission method using capacitive coupling in which a sensor is formed so as to face a signal line of an LSI chip that one attempts to monitor in a voltage probe chip, the sensor is covered with a dielectric film, and each chip is inspected by having the voltage probe chip detect voltage changes of the signal line of the LSI chip as an induced electromotive force caused by electrostatic induction.
Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a wafer inspecting device using non-contact signal transmission that comprises a data transmitting/receiving unit that faces a subject wafer in a non-contact state and a tester connected to the data transmitting/receiving unit, starts an inspection when the subject wafer receives an inspection signal from the data transmitting/receiving unit, and has the subject wafer transmit the inspection results to the data transmitting/receiving unit after the inspection is completed.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3798716    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent No. 3793945    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-P2004-253561A